A sample stream containing amino acid may be the effluent of a high performance liquid chromatography system or a flow injection analysis system. Once a sample stream is obtained, the amino acid may be converted by derivitization. Detecting the quantity of amino acid present has then been achieved by either spectrophotometric absorption or fluorescence spectroscopy.
The derivitization process is both time consuming and complex. Efforts to eliminate the need for conversion of the amino acid have resulted in the use of the reagent Tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(III) (sometimes referred to herein as Ru(bpy).sub.3.sup.3+), which may be generated on site, resulting in immediate luminescence when merged with amino acids in a buffered solution of a specified pH range.